Customer Reviews

Natural Health & Weight Loss

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3 star:		(1)
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There are three macronutrients in our diet: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Only two are essential and carbohydrate isn't one of them.

It was mostly the sincerity of Dr. Groves' previous two books that prompted me to order his latest one, sight unseen and not a review in sight.

I was not disappointed.
For those unacquainted with the truth in matters of human nutrition, the contents of Natural Health And Weight Loss will raise some eyebrows.
Yes, Groves is right, if there are any culprits to be found in our nutrients, macro- or micro-, it is the carbohydrates. Notably the refined ones but also an excess of complex starches.

The roots of this book can be found in his 1999 publication Eat Fat And Get Thin but even starchy origins can bring about a veritable treasure, in this case a very practical book. The chapters are arranged in logical fashion and the pages contain a wealth of information and only few bits of clutter.

The subject matter of this is low carbohydrate dieting. Many books have been written on this, starting with Banting's original classic Letter Of Corpulence, to Atkins and other imitations. Like the author, I was inspired by British physician Richard Mackarness whose book Eat Fat And Grow Slim was published some 50 years ago. Written for the average blokes and sheilas (whom Mackarness called Mr. and Mrs. Fatten-Easily), it remains a classic. Dr. Groves attempted to go a step further, I believe. He educates the reader on the complex subject matter and demands a measure of concentration from those who are not well schooled in life science subjects. Yet, lazy couch potatoes and recliner pumpkins may skip the science and use the book as a manual.

Practicing meticulous attention to detail, Dr. Groves leaves no stone unturned in presenting evidence for what he espouses as the diet that will keep humans healthy. Rightly he emphasizes the crucial importance of the little known fact that it is FATS that are our most valuable foods and that the correct diet is not high protein but high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate . To the uninitiated, this book undoubtedly flies in the face of current wisdom. The self-appointed guardians of our health (who themselves have had precious little training in nutrition)keep presenting us with the same old faulty diet pyramids in the mistaken belief that adherence will contribute to the good health of society.

Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding (which is not on Dr. Groves' list of preferred foods) and the verdict is in: The low carb way of eating works!

Once the reader gets into the 15th chapter (s)he will be aware that there is nothing strange about eating high fat, low carb fare. After all, humans evolved on it. A list of diseases is given that appear to have their origin in the consumption of excess carbohydrates and the subject of insulin and glucose excess and the resultant malfunctions are well covered. Groves goes into the limited usefulness of the Glycaemic Index and he provides information for diabetics.

On the basis of the astonishing amount of good information contained in 350 odd pages alone, this book deserves to be read by the Fatten-Easy crowd as well as those just curious.

First of all, this is a must-read for anyone who is interested in healthy living the lowcarb way.

I have many friends who are following this plan and just love it. Not only is it easy to follow, it provides a good healthy weight loss that is easy to sustain.

This book is very clear in explaining the benefits of lowcarb eating and explains the healthy aspects of this plan for people who have chronic diseases, i,e., diabetes.

He is very insightful in providing a way to get our children eating in a healthy way from the start and not waiting until they are in jr. high and obese. Eating patterns are learned early.

I can't recommend this book enough..It's great!!

I was highly impressed with this book, and no doubt it is compelling reading. Above all, it is very accessible to the average reader who wants to dig deep into the "whys" and "wherefores" of low carb eating, all while absorbing an amazing array of detail. Mr. Groves appears to be under ratings attack on the net, and like Atkins and other revolutionary thinkers in the arena of low carb/high fat eating, the medical community still shuns these concepts. But medical credentials don't mean everything, and I'd say Barry Groves with his 40 years of study and personal experimentation and observation knows more on this subject than a hundred doctors collectively know. (Read: most doctors know virtually nothing about nutrition). While reading this book you can't help but be convinced by his very sound arguments for this way of eating. It all makes sense when you look at the data and examples he presents. I myself haven't yet implemented his precise recommendations, but I can say that my previous experience doing Atkins for about 6 weeks was amazing: I felt better than I'd ever felt (no grains, no dairy, no sugar) and I dropped weight effortlessly. There is something to this, no doubt about it. The only thing that still frightens me is the idea of possibly raising cholesterol etc. to higher levels. I guess I have a bit of trouble banishing my final degree of skepticism which I hold for all books on weight loss....Mr. Groves' ideas really do fly against the current thinking of most of the medical community, most of whom are sadly "in the dark" about nutritional issues beyond a very rudimentary level. Why should I believe anything they say? Look at the food pyramid! In any case, this really is one of the most fascinating books I have yet read in this subject area and I will be reading it more than once to absorb everything. Particularly if you are already committed to the idea of low carb eating as a way of life, this book greatly adds to your knowledge on the subject and will definitely strengthen your resolve to continue with this sort of diet for a lifetime of maintaining a healthy weight.

In a world where every "nutritionist" seems out to make a quick buck ("Lose 20 lbs in 20 days!!"), Barry Groves REALLY knows his stuff, biologically and practically speaking. It's clear that this man has spent most of his life studying nutrition and biology. He can produce study after study after study and explain its what they mean. The guy even goes back to studying prehistoric man and archaeological finds re: nutrition. This book is nothing if not THOROUGH. I've made nutrition a hobby (studying it, as well as practical application of course!!) and read many books and textbooks on biology and nutrition, and this book is one few that I would actually recommend to anyone. You won't just learn about how to lose weight, but about how your body really works, and how to be healthy for life. I'm not interested in Atkins or Southbeach or some other commercialized "diet".... and this really isn't like that at all. You'll learn a lot, and the truth shall set you free.

After having read nearly every diet book known to man, I thought I would do some additional research to see if I could find something to aide my daughter with her health issues. She has been to at least 8 doctors and always ended up in the same place with continued or exacerbated illness.

I read this book and realized that Dr. Groves speaks to using real food, with the fat, butter, cheese, cream, etc., while cutting back on carbs, sugars, and processed foods. While those points are not new, Dr. Groves focus is directed toward eating more fat - real fat, instead of all the garbage of lowfat butters, margarine, yogurt and everything else that is supposed to make us healthy and comprise the leading causes of heart disease and helping no one.

After only 4 days on Dr. Groves suggested program, my daughter has lost 4 lbs and is hopeful for the first time in 12 years that she will be successful. My mother has lost the same amount and both say that they feel more satisfied on this regiment than they ever have on any other program and thus eating significantly less food. When one is satisfied, one will take in less calories and subsequently lose weight. My daughter stated that she has more energy, and my mother is more than thrilled with the results and has said that this is something that she can stick with to see if it will really work. Of course, the weight loss they have achieved of course includes some water, but when neither of them have been able to lose anything, water or otherwise, one can imagine their joy is seeing the scales move for whatever reason.

For years now, we've all been inundated by the use of the food pyramid and what has it yielded - a nation of fat people. One point of interest is that the food pyramid that has been touted as the way we, as humans should eat, is the same food plan utilized for fattening cows and pigs for market. Are we getting the connection?

For those people who have stated that Dr. Groves book is yet another replay of the Atkins plan, please read the book more closely, and pay special attention to the overall concept, which states that one should limit carbs to approximately 60 per day, eat moderate amounts of protein and focus on the intake of real fat, which triggers the satisfaction synapses in the brain that will limit intake and result in weight loss. Let me underscore, this is NOT just another low-carb program. This book strikes at the core of the weight loss mystery and that is message in the brain that screams for more food when we are not satisfied. Good fats in our diets make us feel satisfied and when we feel satisfied, we stop eating and lose weight.

Of all the diet programs that my family has tried, this is the ONLY one that has helped by mother and my daughter who have both struggled all their lives with weight. They ate according to the "healthy" eating program and exercised, only to continue to gain weight and lose their health. Dr. Groves' has given two ladies a new lease on life in a very short period of time and I am very grateful that I have found this book.

Take the time, give it a try and celebrate the success.

Good luck.

This book deserves 10 stars! I am not overweight but bought this book in the interest of good health after reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Prior to that, I was one of the many people out there who had totally bought into the popular notions of what constitutes a "healthy diet". I thought low-carb was a gimmicky fad. No more! This book is not a diet but a way of eating for life. Not only is Dr. Groves extremely knowledgeable and qualified, but he has a true gift for explaining the science in easy-to-understand English. It was tough to abandon my fears and pre-conceived notions about fats, but I must say that after following his recommendations I feel much better. I used to have lots of problems with hypoglycemia, snacking between meals (I just never felt full), and even a little extra flab around my middle. Now, the ups and downs are gone, I eat three solid (high fat) meals a day and have lost that belly fat. This is truly a fantastic book. His web site is also fabulous and contains more in-depth information on many of the concepts covered in the book.

Having lived the low-carb lifestyle for five years myself, I found this book to be enlightening, informative, researched, and brilliant. This book contained no disappointments. Barry Groves is a fantastic author, presents the low-carb lifestyle with ease and simplicity. I recommend this be added to the library of anyone who is interested in, or lives the low-carb lifestyle.

Another of the very few loud voices speaking out on behalf of a high-fat, low-carb diet in the UK is Dr. Barry Groves. With Dr. Atkins no longer with us, Dr. Groves has taken up the torch and carried it boldly and proudly for all the world to see. He's convinced that fat is not the source of our weight and health troubles--CARBOHYDRATES ARE! That's the underlying conclusion he shares in his book Natural Health & Weight Loss.

After years of researching, studying, writing, lecturing, and, most importantly, LIVING the low-carb lifestyle, Dr. Groves has a lifetime of experiences to share about how eating fat to replace carbohydrate in our diet will keep your body healthy, fit, and lean when a high-carb, low-fat diet fails you. He says people should eat more real food if they want to ward off the diseases that afflict so many people these days, namely obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Of course, all of his claims are backed up by the research and his more than four decades of personal and professional experience. In fact, you can even check out a thread at my LowCarbDiscussion.com forum dedicated to people following Dr. Barry Groves for lots of support and assistance as you implement these principles into your life. Dr. Groves has even been known to pop in to make comments and answer questions from time to time, too. Natural Health & Weight Loss is a book that you'll be proud to own and I cannot encourage you enough to get it, love it, and then LIVE IT!

I am sorry to be the only person to give this book 3 stars but I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed [ASIN:1905140223 Trick and Treat: How Healthy Eating is Making Us Ill]]. A lot of information in this book can be found in the other one in more depth and there are a lot of repetitions within the book, even a section copied and pasted in the menu section which was quite unnecessary. The pity is that Trick and Treat misses the tables and the description of the diet so either you borrow this one from the library either you should buy it so that you get the idea of how to eat. This book was written first, then came Trick and Treat and I suppose the author wanted to go on selling both. If everything was in the second book less people would have bought the first one. I contacted the author in order to know whether to buy Natural Health & Weight Loss as I already had Trick and Treat and I think that he gave me an honest answer. When I contacted him again with another question I have to say that he didn't answer anymore so don't count on putting all your questions to him!

One thing surprised me, the author doesn't mention Coconut Oil when he talks about the fats you should use for frying but talks very casually about vegetable margarine and vegetable oils which I thought he didn't agree with at all. He also mentions oil for deep frying, what kind of oil? I suppose that he means vegetable oil but that is supposed to be very unhealthy? Also the recipes with condensed soups didn't convince me. I presume that condensed soups have a lot of stuff you shouldn't be eating but then maybe he means that as you only eat them occasionally it is all right. I try to stay away from all that kind of stuff.

I had no idea that full fat milk has less calcium than skimmed milk.... A pity the author doesn't explain why..... it came as a real surprise! As far as milk goes I am rather mixed up: some experts say it is bad for you, some say it is good for you..... Maybe the answer is that if you feel well drinking milk you should go on drinking it, if like me you hate milk then don't (although I don't mind milk in recipes).

Another thing I would have liked is would be for him to tell us what the weight of a slice of bread is supposed to be. I say this because as I bake my own bread I don't know how much a slice of bought bread weighs (I also think that here in France bread is sliced thinner than in other countries). The same goes for protein, how is one supposed to know how much protein one is eating?

The author talks about microwaving food. I have to say that I don't agree with that. I fear that microwaves can be very bad for your health so I cook all the ingredients for breakfast maybe twice a week and then in the morning we take what we want and warm it up either in a pan or in the oven. As far as canned meat and fish go I am not sure whether this is very good. As a rule we only use canned anchovies, tuna and sardines but I really don't know. Still.... he advises them..... Doesn't the metal of the tin leach into the contents?

He mentions fructose raising blood sugar and that research says that it will increase the risk of atherosclerosis but from everything I read, even from this author, higher cholesterol is not supposed to increase the risk of atherosclerosis? Another thing which I didn't quite understand is that on page 87 the author says that obesity increases the risks for the baby during pregnancy and after the birth but on the next page he says that it is not the size of the mother that matters but what she ate during pregnancy.

This said I have to say that this book made us change the way we eat. We now buy all our meat at a good butcher who sells only meet from animals which graze outside, we eat cooked breakfasts at least a few times a week, my husband uses full fat, less pasteurized milk with his cereals (yes, he still eats cereals for the time being but less days a week), we eat butter and cheese made with raw milk (I was surprised that we could still find those here in France....) and we eat more eggs. If I were fat, which I am not, I would surely give this way of eating a try. I won't call it a diet because a diet is something temporary and this is the way you should eat for the rest of your (hopefully) long life!

A natural follow-on to Trick & Treat this too is a must read - like the tips and recipes some of which I have already tried. Would recommend this also and is next in line for my husband to read!